If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Now begins a waiting period during which engineers will monitor pressure gauges and watch for signs of leaks elsewhere in the well. The biggest risk: Pressure from the oil gushing out of the ground could fracture the well and make the leak even worse.

The well integrity test will last at least 6 hours and could last up to 48 hours. During the test, the three ram capping stack is closed, effectively shutting in the well and all sub-sea containment systems (namely, the Q4000 and Helix Producer systems) have been temporarily stopped. Although it cannot be assured, it is expected that no oil will be released to the ocean during the test. Even if no oil is released during the test, this will not be an indication that oil and gas flow from the wellbore has been permanently stopped.

Wouldn't that be just what we need - having the casing blow out somewhere else underground...

There have been a lot of reports in the last several weeks about "underwater oil plumes" "seeping" up from the ocean floor, as it were (whether or not they were legit is a different story).

I wouldn't get your hopes up yet. I wonder if they are still going to perform the bottom kill?

But late on Sunday, the U.S. government released a letter to BP Chief Managing Director Bob Dudley from retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen that referred to an unspecified type of seepage near the mile-deep (1.6 km-deep) well along with "undetermined anomalies at the well head."

The concern all along — since pressure readings on the cap weren't as high as expected — was a leak elsewhere in the wellbore, meaning the cap may have to be reopened to prevent the environmental disaster from becoming even worse and harder to fix.

"When seeps are detected, you are directed to marshal resources, quickly investigate, and report findings to the government in no more than four hours. I direct you to provide me a written procedure for opening the choke valve as quickly as possible without damaging the well should hydrocarbon seepage near the well head be confirmed," Allen said in a letter to BP Managing Director Bob Dudley.

The more I see these reports, the more it sounds to me as if "seepage" would have to be an "intentional" misnomer on their part. How exactly does oil "seep" from a casing @ 6.5k+ psi anyway......? As opposed to a "rupture" in the piping that is leaking sufficient amounts of oil to diffuse its way up through the sediment & into the ocean above? Which do you think is more likely to be a part of the "official" PR release? The former, obviously.